Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister of Education, Culture and Employment
The Honourable Caitlin Cleveland was first elected in the 19th Assembly as the MLA for Kam Lake in 2019, and has served as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment since 2023 after being acclaimed to the 20th Assembly.
In addition to owning and operating a northern business for over 20 years, Minister Cleveland worked in a variety of communications and policy roles in both the public and private sectors before entering politics.
Between 2019 to 2023, she chaired the Standing Committee on Social Development, fulfilling a goal to be a part of the discussions and decisions affecting social programs in the Northwest Territories. Her noteworthy work on the Committee included guiding the considerable review and input into recommendations on housing in the NWT, suicide prevention, and improvements to caring for children in care and building supported families.
Within the scope of her portfolios, Minister Cleveland is focused on helping children grow into successful NWT residents that recognize opportunities and develop successful careers that contribute to a growing economy. She advocates for new approaches to sector diversification and innovation, and ensures the North is welcoming both skilled foreign workers and investment in the critical mineral resources across the territory. She persistently explores solutions for efficient and equitable access to programs and services, upholding a shared vision of an NWT where people are supported in the ways they wish to live, work, and grow.
Minister Cleveland is a lifelong resident of Yellowknife where she lives with her husband and their three children.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my concern is implementing or agreeing to something on the floor of the House without doing my due diligence because in the end, we could end up having our agreement cancelled which costs this territory and families in this territory a tremendous amount of money. We would risk losing our agreement with Canada if we are found to be in contravention of it. So I want to ensure that I'm doing my due diligence before making an $80 million mistake. Thank you.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. This isn't additional staff. It's additional compensation and benefits through the UNW collective agreement. Thank you.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if possible, one of the things that I'm going to do today is swap out different staff when we get to different sections and so maybe we can come back around to that when we get to the petroleum -- minerals and petroleum resources section of the main estimates today. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can promise this House it was not for lack of trying. As the Member also would have seen in the same news article, we weren't alone in resigning that agreement with Canada. That agreement is to the tune of $80 million over the lifespan of that agreement, and it is very difficult to say no to $80 million that supports families with young children to access childcare.
I absolutely acknowledge what the Member is saying about the fact that there are challenges with that program and the implementation of it in the Northwest Territories, issues that I...
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, companies like Dene Fur Cloud are a subsidiary of Prosper NWT so is not counted in that previous area that I identified. So there a number of subsidiaries that Prosper NWT does support, and they are certainly for-profit companies, and Prosper NWT is working with them to continue to develop their business practices. Thank you.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that initiative is focused on really investment attraction for critical minerals. This past week, on Sunday night at PDAC in Toronto, we were able to host an event in conjunction with Nunavut and the Yukon, and it was incredibly well attended by both politicians, investment individuals, and business owners. And so we hope to continue to build off that momentum. Thank you.
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we had a number of communities evacuated and the -- our parks ended up being used as evacuation spots and ended up seeing a significant increase in incidents in our parks in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's very difficult for me to base all of my answers on hypothetical. I think what the college is looking at doing is exploring how this works for Northerners, and I would expect that they would be consistently evaluating this shift and this change.
The other thing that was referenced today was different opportunities that communities are taking advantage of with additional partnerships both through Indigenous governments and through community governments. And I think that those will continue to flourish in the territory as well. We do have relationships through Dechinta...
Debates of
, 20th Assembly, 1st Session (day 52)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, between April 2005 to March 2024, Prosper NWT has supported 741 businesses across the Northwest Territories. So I certainly couldn't list them all out here but -- and then through those 741 businesses, they have disbursed approximately $128 million. But it might be of interest to Members -- and mind you these are regional areas, not political areas -- but:
162 businesses from the South Slave, that was 40 percent of the funds disbursed, $52 million;
386 businesses in the North Slave, that was $30 million, or 24 percent of funds disbursed;
